APPLICATION OF MODELS FOR ELECTRICAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION

TO IMPROVE EAF OPERATION AND DYNAMIC CONTROL

Dr.-Ing. Bernd Kleimt, Betriebsforschungsinstitut, Dsseldorf, Germany
Dr.-Ing. Siegfried Khle, Hilden, Germany
Dr.-Ing. Robert Khn, Georgsmarienhtte, Germany
Dipl.-Ing. Sven Zisser, Betriebsforschungsinstitut, Dsseldorf, Germany
ABSTRACT
Within this paper, different approaches and models for an energy balance of an electric arc furnace are
described. With a formula for calculation of the electrical energy demand, which was developed by
statistical analysis of data from more than 50 furnaces, the electrical energy consumption of a furnace
can be assessed and analysed in comparison to other furnaces. At the DC furnace of Georgsmarienhtte
(GMH) an extensive data acquisition including permanent off-gas analysis is used for an on-line diffe-
rential energy balance. A synthesis of both modelling approaches was used to derive a complete dyna-
mic energy and mass balance model, which has been tested and verified with data from the GMH
furnace. The described models can be used as tools to improve EAF operation and dynamic control.
INTRODUCTION
A formula for calculating the electrical energy demand of arc furnaces had been developed by statistical
analysis of average values from more than 50 furnaces. As reported at the preceding Electric
Steelmaking Conference in Venice 2002, that formula was extended and improved on the basis of single
heat values for more than 5000 heats from 5 furnaces, as well as monthly average values for one of
them over 3 years [1]. With this statistical model, the electrical energy consumption of a furnace can
be assessed in comparison to other furnaces, and variations of electrical energy consumption at the same
furnace can be analysed. Effects on electrical energy consumption and on furnace productivity have
been determined for the influencing variables of the energy demand formula [2].
For calculating the electrical energy demand, the formula includes gas and oxygen consumption with
respect to related chemical energy input. Concerning energy losses by vessel cooling and gas
exhaustion, if measured at a furnace, the formula only regards the deviation of losses for an individual
heat from their mean value over all heats of the furnace. For an energy balance however, the energy
losses have to be included as absolute values, and further sources of chemical energy input must be
respected, i.e. combustion with oxygen from entrained air as well as slag reactions. With help of the
energy demand formula, more than 200 kWh/t can be estimated for this additional energy input [3].
For on-line process observation and control on basis of an energy balance, this one has to be cyclically
calculated from measured values. Energy losses by gas exhaustion can be determined from the water
flow rate and temperature difference in the water cooled exhaust gas duct, together with the gas flow
rate and temperature measured behind, if post-combustion is completed there [4]. With measurement
of the composition and the flow rate of the off-gas, its sensible and chemical heat contents can be
distinguished, and post-combustion within the furnace can be observed.
ELECTRICAL ENERGY DEMAND FORMULA
The formula for calculating the electrical energy demand of arc furnaces is given in Table 1 [1]. It takes
into account specific consumption of total and several individual ferrous materials, slag formers, burner
gas, oxygen for blowing by lance as well as for post-combustion, temperature before tapping and tap-to-
tap time, divided in power-on and power-off time. All consumption values - also the electrical energy
consumption for comparison with the calculated demand - are related to the tap weight, i.e. the weight
of steel in the ladle per heat, including ferroalloys added at tapping.
- 2 -
Table 1: Formula for electrical energy demand of arc furnaces
A
Z
A
HM
A
Shr
A
HBI / DRI
A
E R
G
G
1000
G
G
350
G
G
50
G
G
80 1
G
G
400 375
t / kWh
W
+ - - +

- + =
t / kWh
W W
NV
t / m
M
8 . 2
t / m
M
3 . 4
t / m
M
8
min
t t
1 1600
C
T
3 . 0
Vm V N L G N S A
-
+ - - -
+
+

+
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A
G furnace tap weight
S
t power-on time
E
G weight of all ferrous materials
N
t power-off time
DRI
G weight of DRI
G
M specific burner gas
HBI
G weight of HBI
L
M specific lance oxygen
Shr
G weight of shredder
N
M specific post-combustion oxygen
HM
G weight of hot metal
V
W energy losses (if measured)
Z
G weight of slag formers
Vm
W mean value of
V
W
A
T tapping temperature NV furnace specific factor (0.2 ... 0.4)
For measured energy losses by vessel cooling and gas exhaustion, the deviation for an individual heat
from the mean value over all heats is taken into account by the factor NV, which has to be determined
specifically for each furnace. As the mean value of the electrical energy demand is thus not effected by
the energy losses, furnaces with and without measurement of these losses can be compared in evaluating
their electrical energy consumption. For an individual furnace however, variation in energy losses from
heat to heat may explain a considerable part of the variation in electrical energy consumption [2].
Monitoring of performance improvement at an electric arc furnace
For an AC furnace with a tap weight of 80 t and
70 MVA apparent power, monthly averages of
electrical energy consumption are presented in
Fig. 1. The calculated demand is in very good
accordance to the actual consumption with a
high correlation coefficient of 92 %. The
calculation error has a mean value of 2 kWh/t
and a standard deviation of 7 kWh/t.
The reduction of electrical energy consumption
by about 40 kWh/t was achieved by increasing
the share of shredded scrap, by higher burner gas
and oxygen input, and by lower consumption of
slag formers [2].
300
320
340
360
380
400
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36
months
e
l
e
c
t
r
i
c
a
l

e
n
e
r
g
y

i
n

k
W
h
/
t
actual consumption
calculated demand
Fig. 1: Reduction of electrical energy consumption
at a furnace over 3 years
Effects on electrical energy consumption and furnace productivity
For investigating effects on electrical energy consumption and productivity, a furnace with reference
data from Table 2 is assumed. With the electrical energy consumption W
E
, the specific electric power
(P
S
/G
A
) at main melting and its mean utilisation degree N
P
during power-on, the power-on time
) G / P ( N
W
P N
G W
t
A S P
E
S P
A E
S

= (1)
of 44.7 min is calculated.
- 3 -
The power-off time is chosen to give a
tap-to-tap time of 60 min. With the tap
weight of 150 t, the productivity
N S
A
R
t t
G
P
+
= (2)
is 150 t/h. After substituting t
S
by equ.
(1) it becomes obvious, that the
productivity
N A S P E
S P
R
t ) G / P ( N W
P N
P
+

= (3)
Table 2: Reference data for the investigation
electrical energy consumption W
E
380 kWh/t
specific power at main melting P
S
/G
A
600 kW/t
power utilisation degree N
P
0.85
power-on time t
S
44.7 min
power-off time t
N
15.3 min
tap-to-tap time t
S
+t
N
60 min
tap weight G
A
150 t
furnace productivity P
R
150 t/h
mainly depends on the mean electric power, the electrical energy consumption and the power-off time,
whereas the tap weight has a second order influence.
When by means of equ. (1) the power-on time is eliminated from the electrical energy demand formula,
W
R
gets the specific power (P
S
/G
A
) as a new influencing variable. Derivatives of W
R
for its variables
describe their effects on electrical energy consumption. These effects are shown by the left columns in
Fig. 2 for variations of influencing variables as given in the figure [2].
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
e
n
e
r
g
y

d
e
c
r
e
a
s
e

i
n

k
W
h
/
t
0
1
2
p
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e

i
n

t
/
h
electrical energy furnace productivity
G
E
/
G
A
-
1
0

k
g
/
t
G
D
R
I
/
G
A
-
5
0

k
g
/
t
G
S
h
r
/
G
A
+
1
0
0

k
g
/
t
G
H
M
/
G
A
+
1
0

k
g
/
t
G
Z
/
G
A
-
5

k
g
/
t
T
A
-
1
0

K
t
N
-
0
.
5

m
i
n
M
G
+
0
.
5

m

/
t
M
L
+
1

m

/
t
M
N
+
1

m

/
t
P
S
/
G
A
+
6

k
W
/
t
Fig. 2: Effects of varied influencing variables on electrical energy consumption and productivity
(variables in Table 1, specific power P
S
/G
A
at main melting, reference data in Table 2)
The right columns in Fig. 2 represent the corresponding effects on furnace productivity, resulting from
derivatives of P
R
from equ. (2, 3) for the individual variables [2]. For most of them, both effects are
proportional to each other by the ratio dP
R
/dW
E
= -0.294 (t/h)/(kWh/t) for the assumed reference data.
The power-off time t
N
and the specific electric power (P
S
/G
A
) have low effects on the electrical energy
consumption of a furnace, but both of them strongly influence its productivity.
- 4 -
APPLICATION OF ENERGY BALANCE CALCULATIONS AT THE GMH DC FURNACE
Georgsmarienhtte (GMH) operates a 130t
DC-EAF with a power rating of 130 MVA.
Tap to tap time is about 65 min, power on
time is 50 min. The layout of the furnace is
shown in Fig. 3. Fossil energies are added as
charge coal with the scrap bucket and blo-
wing coal via a lance. The furnace is equip-
ped with four natural gas/oxygen burners.
Two of them can be operated as jet, i.e. a
coherent supersonic oxygen stream is used to
refine the steel melt. Additional oxygen is
supplied by two consumable door lances and
two subsonic injectors in the furnace wall, the
latter ones mainly for post combustion.
Fig. 3: Layout of GMH furnace
Calculations with the electrical energy demand formula
For the DC EAF of GMH, calculations with the formula for the electrical energy demand were
performed to asses the efficiency of energy input in comparison to other furnaces. For this purpose, the
process data of 200 single heats treated under standard operating conditions were evaluated.
Furthermore the results of 60 trial heats under a nearly airtight furnace condition were provided.
Although for these trial heats the lance manipulator was still used for oxygen injection, the furnace door
was closed almost completely during lance operation, leaving only a small gap for introduction of the
lance tip. Table 3 shows the average model input values of the GMH heats for the standard and the
nearly airtight operation, according to the naming scheme given in Table 1.
Table 3: Average values of input variables for electrical energy demand calculation
of GMH heats with standard and nearly airtight operating conditions
Variable W
R
W
E
G
A
g
E
g
HBI
g
Z
T
A
t
S
t
N
M
G
M
L
M
N
Unit kWh/t kWh/t t kg/t kg/t kg/t C min min m/t m/t m/t
Standard
operation
447 492 130 1142 --- 38 1653 52 20 3.5 16.4 3.1
Airtight
operation
455 484 129 1157 15 48 1672 49 17 3.8 18.6 3.2
In Fig. 4 the electrical energy demand W
R
calculated according to the formula is plotted against the
actual electrical energy consumption W
E
for the single heat values of the GMH furnace under standard
and nearly airtight operating conditions. The actual electrical energy consumption is significantly higher
than the calculated demand. The modelling error, i.e. the difference between calculated demand and
actual consumption, has for the standard heats a mean value of - 45 kWh/t, for the heats under airtight
conditions the mean value is only - 29 kWh/t.
A correlation analysis between the calculated energy demand and its difference to the actual
consumption on the one hand, and the considered influence parameters on the other hand revealed that
the energetic yield of the oxygen injected into the bath is not as high as expected within the model. The
reason is that obviously the combustion of the injected and charged carbon is not efficient for all heats,
which results in a low post combustion ratio. This will be shown in the following for an example heat.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
17
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
EBT
charging
hole
off-gas
extraction
oxygen
injector
(subsonic)
oxygen
injector
(subsonic)
oxygen/natural gas
burner
oxygen/
natural gas
burner
jet burner
jet burner
lance manipulator:
carbon oxygen,
- 5 -
The heats performed under nearly airtight
conditions show no significant difference
in the electrical energy consumption
compared to the standard conditions.
However, it has to be noted that for the
trial heats HBI was used as a part of the
metallic charge material, which has a
higher specific energy consumption.
Furthermore the tapping temperature was
slightly higher, and a higher amount of
slag formers was used.
The calculation with the formula for the
electrical energy demand allows to
compare the overall energy consumption
of the two operation practices. The
difference of 16 kWh/t of the mean
modelling errors can be regarded as energy
saving which is due to the airtight
operation practice.

350
400
450
500
550
600
350 400 450 500 550 600
actual electrical energy consumption in kWh/t
c
a
l
c
u
l
a
t
e
d

e
l
e
c
t
r
i
c
a
l

e
n
e
r
g
y

d
e
m
a
n
d

i
n

k
W
h
/
t



.
Mean Error:
Standard dev.:
-45
31
kWh/t
kWh/t
kWh/t
kWh/t
Standard Airtight
-29
25
Fig. 4: Calculated versus actual electrical energy
consumption for GMH heats
Off-gas measurement at the GMH furnace
To get a better understanding of the processes in
the EAF, GMH got involved in developing a
reliable continuous off-gas analysis many years
ago. Today, it works very satisfactorily with an
availability of about 95%. From the furnace a gas
sample is drawn, dedusted and fed into a mass
spectrometer (see Fig. 5). During every charging
operation of the furnace, the gas sampling line is
cleaned by purging with nitrogen. The gas sample
is analysed for the concentrations of seven
different species: CO, CO
2
, H
2
and CH
4
are used
to observe the progress of the combustion
reactions. The analysed O
2
concentration serves as
an indicator for the tightness of the sampling line,
N
2
coarse filter
water separation
fines
filter
vacuum pump
N
2
off-gas
vacuum
monitoring
P
mass
spectrometer
charging signal
filter
Fig. 5: Off-gas analysis at the GMH furnace
as for thermodynamical reasons the O
2
content in the furnace gas must be very low as soon as there is
CO present in a substantial quantity. The analysis of the contents of N
2
and Ar provide the possibility
to determine the total off-gas flow and the entrained air from the surroundings (false air).
Fig. 6 displays the concentrations of O
2
, CO, H
2
and CO
2
for a time period of 50 minutes of an example
heat. The first 20 minutes show the meltdown period of the first scrap bucket. The O
2
concentration
goes back to nearly zero as soon as a substantial CO content is present. The CO content itself fluctuates
between 30 and nearly 50%. H
2
shows a peak of almost 50% in the beginning of the meltdown period
which decreases rapidly. CO
2
barely reaches 10% except in the first two minutes. After the first
meltdown phase, the second scrap bucket is charged. As mentioned before, during these 4 minutes of
charging, the gas sampling line is purged with VSA-nitrogen, which explains the 4.5% oxygen analysed.
The second meltdown period qualitatively is a repetition of the first, with a less extreme hydrogen peak
at the beginning. After another 13 minutes, electric power and oxygen input are stopped briefly for
taking a steel sample by a manually driven lance, which marks the end of the meltdown period. After
sampling, the heat is superheated to the target tapping temperature of 1660C.
- 6 -
During this process phase, the blowing of
fine coal provides a foaming slag.
However it is also the reason for CO
concentrations well in excess of 40%. The
time period displayed in Fig. 6 ends with
the temperature measurement, which is
also done with a manual lance and
requires a brief interruption of the
superheating process. Afterwards, the heat
is tapped. Generally speaking, the
utilisation of combustible matter during
this example heat was not very good, as
can be seen by the high contents of H
2
and
CO throughout almost the whole process
time. For the same time period, the off-gas
flow and the flow of false air are displayed
in Fig. 7. The off-gas flow fluctuates
between 200 and 400 Nm/min in the first
five meltdown minutes, between 400 and
600 Nm/min afterwards. Switching off
the burners towards the end of the first
meltdown phase results in a decrease of
the off-gas flow rate from 600 back to 400
Nm/min. Throughout the second melt-
down and the superheating period, the off-
gas flow fluctuates around 350 Nm/min.
off-gas O2 content (vol%)
off-gas CO2 content (vol%)
off-gas CO content (vol%)
off-gas H2 content (vol%)
Fig. 6: Off-gas composition for an example heat
off-gas volume flow (Nm3/min)
off-gas temperature (C-1000)
false air volume flow (Nm3/min)
Fig. 7: Off-gas flow rate and temperature
The green curve displays the flow rate of entrained ambient air, which fluctuates between 100 and
200 Nm/min, i.e. false air makes up for as low as roughly one third of the total off-gas volume. The
red curve shows the off-gas temperature measured by means of a quotient pyrometer. It rises up to
1450 C during meltdown, up to 1550C in the superheating phase.
Differential energy balance at the GMH furnace
These raw data are the basis to calculate the
courses for some figures from the
differential energy balance (Fig. 8). The
electric power input appears more or less
even at about 90 MW. The input that comes
from chemical reactions fluctuates much
more and covers a range of up to 50 MW. It
includes the carbon and hydrogen combus-
tion and the slag formation reactions. So the
blue curve represents the total energy
consumption, which is the sum of electric
energy and reaction energy. Furthermore
from the off-gas analysis is known, which
reaction energy (MW)
unused chemical energy CO (MW)
electrical energy (MW)
unused chemical energy H2 (MW)
Fig. 8: Differential energy balance (Part I)
energies leave the EAF unused as combustible matter, i.e. CO and H
2
. During the first meltdown phase,
this chemical energy of the off-gas reaches values of 80 MW in the top. Fig. 9 shows the energy outputs
of the process. The area below the green curve is the energy included in steel and slag. The area between
green and brown curve represents the cooling water energy losses. The sensible heat of the off-gas is
shown as area between brown and red curve. The blue curve, as in Fig. 8, represents the sum of all uti-
lised energy inputs. Cooling water losses are low in the beginning of the meltdown phases, when scrap
- 7 -
protects the furnace walls from arc radiation, and they increase with progress of meltdown. Sensible
off-gas heat losses are mainly a function of the flow rate since the temperature fluctuations are limited.
From the raw data and the results of the
energy balance which have been presented
so far, the main information is distilled
into one screen that is used to guide the
process. The green curve in Fig. 10 shows
the accumulated energy in steel and slag,
i.e. the integrated curve from Fig. 8. On
reaching a target value, the temperature of
the heat is measured and the heat is ready
for tapping. The other information in the
screen supports the furnace operators in
reaching this point quickly. The blue curve
shows the carbon post combustion ratio
total energy utilized (MW) steel + slag (MW)
water cooling losses (MW) sensible off-gas energy losses (MW)
Fig. 9: Differential energy balance (Part II)
2
2
2
CO CO
CO
CO
x x
x
+
= h . (4)
Values of the ratio of around 20%
through-out the largest part of the time
show that, as already mentioned, the
example heat had a rather poor utilisation
of fossil fuels. The black curve integrates
up the oxygen flow rate. The red curve, on
the other hand, assesses the effectivity of
oxygen utilisation in a very straight-
forward way. It integrates the oxygen flow
rate, weighted by the quotient of actual
and target post combustion ratio.

=
=
t
t
target , CO
CO
ges , O O
) t (
) t ( V V
eff ,
0
2
2
2 2
h
h
&
(5)
Fig. 10: Monitor of energy balance
and post-combustion ratio
When the actual post combustion ratio matches its target value over the course of the heat, the red curve
is congruent to the black. However, the example heat does not show a sufficient oxygen effectivity.
The bottom part of the screen shows the
distribution of the energy consumed in useful
energy (steel and slag), water cooling losses,
sensible off-gas energy and other losses.
Available are an integrated value in kWh, an
integrated value in percent of total energy
consumed and a momentary value in percent.
70% of the energy consumed for the example
heat are useful energy, 15% heat up the cooling
water and 13% are carried away with the off
gas. The correlation between average post
combustion ratio for a heat and energy
utilization is depicted in Fig. 11. After equal
1560
1580
1600
1620
1640
1660
1680
50000 52000 54000 56000 58000 60000 62000
electric energy (kWh)
m
e
a
s
u
r
e
d

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e


(

C
)
28%
36%
45%
h
CO2,m
=
Fig. 11: Correlation between post combustion
ratio and energy utilization
electric energy input, heats with a high average PC ratio of 45% are 15 to 30C hotter than heats with
a low PC ratio of 28%. The energy released in the post combustion reactions obviously ends up as
useful energy. It does not only heat up cooling water or off-gas.
- 8 -
DEVELOPMENT OF A DYNAMIC ENERGY AND MATERIAL BALANCE MODEL
On the basis of the formula for the electrical energy demand, BFI developed a dynamic energy and mass
balance model which can be used for on-line observation of the current EAF process state. In converting
the influence parameters of the electrical energy demand formula into model parameters of a complete
mass and energy balance model, results of a validation and evaluation of the influence parameters
reported at the preceding Electric Steelmaking Conference in Venice [5] were taken into account.
Furthermore a comprehensive study on the mass and energy balance of the GMH DC furnace [6] was
considered. Fig. 12 shows the structure of the BFI dynamic energy and mass balance model with the
input values which are available at the GMH DC furnace.
The total weight (steel and slag) of
the melt is calculated from the
metallic materials and slag formers
charged with the scrap baskets, and
from the injected amount of dust. The
specific meltdown energy of each
charged scrap type is determined
according to its contents of ferrous
and non-ferrous components.
Together with the specific meltdown
energy of the slag formers, the totally
required energy to melt down the
charged materials and to heat up the
melt to a reference temperature of
1600 C is given. This calculation is
comparable to the first line of the
electrical energy demand formula
shown in Table 1.
Additionally the effect of the hot heel
in the furnace is considered in this
calculation. Its amount is estimated
from a simple mass balance at tapping
of the preceding heat. The
temperature of the hot heel at the
beginning of the tap-to-tap time of the
new heat is given by the tapping
temperature of the preceding heat.
Weight of
charge materials
and
meltdown energy
requirement
Post-combustion
Dust injection
Slag former additions
Metallic material input via basket
Electrical energy
Burner natural gas
Lance oxygen
Jet burner oxygen
Post-combustion oxygen
Off-gas analysis
Off-gas flow rate
Off-gas temperature
Radiation and convection
Cooling water flow rate
Cooling water temperatures
Energy
losses
Actual
energy
content
Melt
tempe-
rature
Hot heel (amount and temperature)
False air flow rate
Fig. 12: Structure of the dynamic process model with
input data available at the GMH DC-EAF
The energy input calculation comprises electrical and chemical energy, the latter one consisting of the
energy input by burner natural gas, by oxygen input through lance and jet burners, and by injection of
post-combustion oxygen. The flow rates of natural gas and oxygen are converted into a power input for
the melt with theoretically achievable gain factors. This is different to the electrical energy demand
formula, where values for the effective chemical energy input are applied which implicitly consider the
energy losses by gas exhaustion. For natural gas the theoretical energy gain factor is given by the caloric
energy of the combustion with oxygen. The supplied oxygen is consumed for different chemical
reactions, e.g. decarburisation, oxidation of metals like silicon, manganese and iron, combustion of
hydro-carbonates introduced by the scrap etc. As it is very difficult to determine the distribution of the
oxygen to the different reactions for each heat individually, an average value for the energy gain by
oxygen input was chosen.
- 9 -
The post combustion is derived from the measured off-gas values, taking into account the energy input
by post combustion with oxygen coming from the false air, and the energy losses by the not completely
combusted off-gas components CO, H
2
and CH
4
. Further energy losses consist of the sensible heat of
the off-gas, which is given by its flow rate and its temperature, and the thermal losses by the water-
cooled panels, which are calculated from cooling water flow rate and the difference between inlet and
outlet temperatures. Radiation losses occurring when the furnace roof is opened are calculated
depending on the current melt temperature, and convection losses via the furnace hearth are taken into
account with a fixed loss rate. The last two losses are considered in the electrical energy demand
formula with the influence parameter for power-on and power-off time.
The difference between
energy input and energy
losses gives the actual
energy content of the melt.
Within this balance, also the
hot heel with its energy
content depending on its
temperature has to be consi-
dered. To calculate the melt
temperature, the actual ener-
gy content is related to the
meltdown energy require-
ment. The energy input for
superheating of the melt be-
yond the reference tempera-
ture of 1600C is calculated
with different specific heat
values for steel and slag,
which is similar to the consi-
deration of the tapping tem-
perature in the electrical
energy demand formula.
The result of the dynamic
mass and energy balance cal-
culation is shown in Fig. 13
for the GMH example heat
which was already used in
Fig. 6-10. In the upper part
of the figure, the energy
inputs by electrical energy,
burner gas, lance and jet
burner oxygen as well as
post combustion are dis-
played as power versus time.
In the middle part, the power
losses due to the sensible
and chemical heat of the off-
gas, the water-cooled panels,
as well as radiation and con-
vection are shown.
Fig. 13: Calculation result of the dynamic mass and energy balance
model for the GMH example heat
- 10 -
Interesting is that the power loss by the exhaust gas is especially in the first meltdown phase at the same
level as the power input by oxygen. This is due to the fact that especially in this phase a large amount
of chemical energy is lost via the high contents of H
2
and CO in the off-gas.
The lower part of Fig.13 shows the calculated temperature of the melt. The times when the two buckets
are charged are clearly indicated by the temperature drop. The simulated melt temperature is compared
to the temperature measurement before tapping, and to a predicted tapping temperature, which is
calculated with an empirical formula developed by GMH on the basis of the energy inputs which are
performed after the temperature measurement. It can be seen that for this heat the correspondence
between simulated and measured temperature is very good.
The accuracy of the dynamic process model regarding the calculation of the melt temperature was
evaluated on the basis of a larger number of heats treated at the DC furnace of GMH. For the first
temperature measurement after meltdown, an error standard deviation of 60 K, respectively converted
into an energy value, of 13.8 kWh/t was achieved. With respect to the total energy input of around 690
kWh/t, this is a relative error of the energy balance of only 2 %, which is already a good accuracy. In
comparison to the calculation with the electrical energy demand formula, the error standard deviation
was almost cut in half.
CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS
The comparison of different modelling approaches for the energy balance of an electric arc furnace has
illustrated various aspects of application of such models. The electrical energy demand formula was
used to evaluate and to judge different operation practices regarding the electrical energy consumption.
A differential on-line energy balance based on measured off-gas values allows to follow the energetic
efficiency of a furnace during treatment. In combination with a mass balance, the energy balance was
used to built a complete dynamic model for the electric arc furnace, which can be used for on-line
observation and control of the process. The dynamic EAF process model will be subject of
improvement and extension in the future, and it will be used for on-line dynamic process control, e.g.
regarding burners, oxygen injectors and post combustion.
REFERENCES
[1] Khle, S.: Recent improvements in modelling energy consumption of electric arc furnaces.
7
th
European Electric Steelmaking Conference 2002, p. 1.305-1.314
[2] Improving the productivity of electric arc furnaces. ECSC Report EUR 20803, 2003
[3] Khle, S.: Einflugren des elektrischen Energieverbrauchs und des Elektrodenverbrauchs
von Lichtbogenfen. Stahl u. Eisen 112 (1992) No. 11, p. 59-67
[4] Khle, S.: Rechnereinsatz zur Steuerung von Lichtbogenfen.
Stahl u. Eisen 100 (1980) No. 10, p. 522-528
[5] Pfeiffer, H.; Kirschen, M.: Thermodynamic analysis of EAF energy efficiency and comparison
with a statistical model of electric energy demand. 7
th
European Electric Steelmaking
Conference 2002, p. 1.413-1.428
[6] Khn, R.: Untersuchungen zum Energieumsatz in einem Gleichstromlichtbogenofen zur
Stahlerzeugung. Dissertation TU Clausthal, Shaker Verlag Aachen 2003
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research work concerning EAF modelling was partly performed within ECSC research projects.
The authors like to thank the ECSC for their financial support.